| Colin Ong-Dean
University of California, San Diego
Parents' role in the diagnosis and accomodation of disabled children in the educational context
FINAL REPORT: Racial Inequality in Learning Disability and Mental Retardation, 1974-1990
This research examines three dimensions of racial inequality in special education that are usually neglected in this field. First, it considers historical dimensions of this inequality by looking at data from California school districts from 1974 to 1990. Second, it looks not only at within-district inequality, but also at inequality across school districts. Third, it focuses on a pattern usually neglected in research on racial inequality in special education, namely, minority underrepresentation within special educationÑspecifically, Hispanic and black underrepresentation in the diagnostic category of learning disability (LD). Through this approach it is argued here that the relation between disability and race is shaped not only by students' individual experience of disadvantage and discrimination, but also by the maintenance of racial boundaries and meanings at the geographic level. This is particularly suggested by the fact that LD was diagnosed at higher rates in low-minority districts for all racial groups through the 1970s , a tendency that seems to be larger than any related socioeconomic effects. The facts that this dynamic is declining for white students and, partly as a consequence, that minority students have increasing representation with LD suggest that LD has moved from being a Òhigh statusÓ disability to being a Òlow statusÓ disability. In addressing racial inequalities in disability, it will be important to keep in mind that individual discrimination is not the only factor affecting that inequality. Context-bound assumptions about race and ability may also lead to aggregate racial inequalities in disability. Furthermore, it may be more useful to target individual discrimination as a particular problem in low-minority districts.
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